The Sealed Nectar (9 page)

Al- Bukhari reported on the authority of Jabir bin ‘Abdullah that he said: "While the people were rebuilding Al- Ka‘bah, the Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] went with ‘Abbas to carry some stones. ‘Abbas said: ‘Put your loincloth round your neck to protect you from the stones.’ (As he did that) the Prophet [pbuh] fell to the ground and his eyes turned skyward. Later on he woke up and shouted: ‘My loincloth... my loincloth.’ He wrapped himself in his loincloth." In another report: "His loins were never seen afterwards." [Bukhari Chapter: The Building of Al- Ka'bah, 1/540]

The authorities agree in ascribing to the youth of Muhammad [pbuh] modesty of deportment, virtuous behaviour and graceful manners. He proved himself to be the ideal of manhood, and to possess a spotless character. He was the most obliging to his compatriots, the most honest in his talk and the mildest in temper. He was the most gentle- hearted, chaste, hospitable and always impressed people by his piety-inspiring countenance. He was the most truthful and the best to keep covenant. His fellow- citizens, by common consent, gave him the title of
Al- ‘Ameen
(trustworthy).

The Mother of believers, Khadijah [R], once said: He unites uterine relations, he helps the poor and the needy, he entertains the guests and endures hardships in the path of truthfulness. [Bukhari 1/3]

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In the Shade of the Message and Prophethood

When Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] was nearly forty, he had been wont to pass long hours in retirement meditating and speculating over all aspects of creation around him. This meditative temperament helped to widen the mental gap between him and his compatriots. He used to provide himself with
Sawiq
(barley porridge) and water and then directly head for the hills and ravines in the neighbourhood of Makkah. One of these in particular was his favourite resort — a cave named Hira’, in the Mount An- Nour. It was only two miles from Makkah, a small cave 4 yards long and 1.75

yard wide. He would always go there and invite wayfarers to share him his modest provision. He used to devote most of his time, and Ramadan in particular, to worship and meditation on the universe around him. His heart was restless about the moral evils and idolatry that were rampant among his people; he was as yet helpless because no definite course, or specific approach had been available for him to follow and rectify the ill practices around him. This solitude attended with this sort of contemplative approach must be understood in its Divine perspective. It was a preliminary stage to the period of grave responsibilities that he was to shoulder very soon. [Rahmat Al- lil'alameen 1/47; Ibn Hisham 1/235,236; Fi Zilal Al- Qur'an 29/166]

Privacy and detachment from the impurities of life were two indispensable prerequisites for the Prophet’s soul to come into close communion with the Unseen Power that lies behind all aspects of existence in this infinite universe. It was a rich period of privacy which lasted for three years and ushered in a new era, of indissoluble contact with that Power. [Fi Zilal Al- Qur'an 29/166,167]

Interruption of Revelation

Ibn Sa‘d reported on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that the Revelation paused for a few days.[Fath Al- Bari 1/27,12/360] After careful study, this seems to be the most possible. To say that it lasted for three and a half years, as some scholars allege, is not correct, but here there is no room to go into more details.

Meanwhile, the Prophet [pbuh], was caught in a sort of depression coupled with astonishment and perplexity. Al- Bukhari reported:

The Divine inspiration paused for a while and the Prophet [pbuh] became so sad, as we have heard, that he intended several times to throw himself from the tops of high mountains, and every time he went up the top of a mountain in order to throw himself down, Gabriel would appear before him and say: "O Muhammad! You are indeed All? ’s Messenger in truth," whereupon his heart would become quiet and he would calm down and return home. Whenever the period of the coming of the Revelation used to become long, he would do as before, but Gabriel would appear again before him and say to him what he had said before. [Bukhari 2/340]

Once more, Gabriel brings All
?
’s Revelation
Ibn Hajar said: ‘That (the pause of All? ’s revelation for a few days) was to relieve the Messenger of All? [pbuh] of the fear he experienced and to make him long for the Revelation. When the shades of puzzle receded, the flags of truth were raised, the Messenger of All? [pbuh] knew for sure that he had become the Messenger of the Great Lord. He was also certain that what had come to him was no more than 44

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the ambassador of inspiration. His waiting and longing for the coming of the revelation constituted a good reason for his steadfastness and self- possession on the arrival of All? ’s inspiration, Al- Bukhari reported on the authority of Jabir bin

‘Abdullah that he had heard the Messenger of All? [pbuh] speak about the period of pause as follows:

"While I was walking, I heard a voice from the sky. I looked up, and surely enough, it was the same angel who had visited me in the cave of Hira’. He was sitting on a chair between the earth and the sky. I was very afraid of him and knelt on the ground. I went home saying: ‘Cover me …, Cover me …’. All? revealed to me the verses:

‘O you (Muhammad [pbuh]) enveloped (in garments)! Arise and warn! And
your Lord (All
?
) magnify! And your garments purify! And keep away from

Ar- Rujz
(the idols)!’"
[Al- Qur'an 74:1- 5]

After that the revelation started coming strongly, frequently and regularly. [Bukhari, The Book of Tafseer, 2/733]

Some details pertinent to the successive stages of Revelation
Before we go into the details of the period of communicating the Message and Prophethood, we would like to get acquainted with the stages of the Revelation which constituted the main source of the Message and the subject- matter of the Call.

Ibn Al- Qayyim, mentioning the stages of the Revelation, said:
The First:
The period of true vision. It was the starting point of the Revelation to the Messenger of All? [pbuh].

The Second:
What the angel invisibly cast in the Prophet’s mind and heart. The Messenger of All? [pbuh] said: "The Noble Spirit revealed to me ‘No soul will perish until it exhausts its due course, so fear All? and gently request Him. Never get so impatient to the verge of disobedience of All? . What All? has can never be acquired but through obedience to Him.’"

The Third:
The angel used to visit the Messenger of All? [pbuh] in the form of a human being and would speak to him directly. This would enable him to fully understand what the angel said. The angel was sometimes seen in this form by the Prophet’s Companions.

The Fourth:
The angel came to him like the toll of a bell and this was the most difficult form because the angel used to seize him tightly and sweat would stream from his forehead even on the coldest day. If the Prophet [pbuh] was on his camel, the camel would not withstand the weight, so it would immediately kneel down on the ground. Once the Messenger of All? [pbuh] had such a revelation when he was sitting and his thigh was on Zaid’s, Zaid felt the pressure had almost injured his thigh.

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The Fifth:
The Prophet [pbuh] saw the angel in his actual form. The angel would reveal to him what All? had ordered him to reveal. This, as mentioned in (Qur’? ), in
S
?
ah An- Najm
(Chapter 53 - The Star), happened twice.

The Sixth:
What All? Himself revealed to him in heaven i.e. when he ascended to heaven and received All? ’s behest of
Sal
? (prayer).

The Seventh:
All? ’s Words to His Messenger [pbuh] at first hand without the mediation of an angel. It was a privilege granted to Moses ? ? ??? and clearly attested in the Qur’? , as it is attested to our Prophet [pbuh] in the
S
?
ah Al-Isr?#146;
(Chapter 17 - The Journey by Night) of the Noble Qur’? .

Some religious scholars added a controversial eighth stage in which they state that All? spoke to the Prophet [pbuh] directly without a curtain in between. This issue remains however unconfirmed. [Za'd Al- Ma'ad 1/18]

Proclaiming All
?
, the All-High; and the Immediate Constituents
The first Revelation sent to the Prophet [pbuh] implied several injunctions, simple in form but highly effective and of serious far- reaching ramifications. The angel communicated to him a manifest Message saying:

"O you (Muhammad [pbuh]) enveloped (in garments)! Arise and warn! And
your Lord (All
?
) magnify! And your garments purify! And keep away from

Ar- Rujz
(the idols). And give not a thing in order to have more (or consider
not your deeds of All
?
’s obedience as a favour to All
?
). And be patient for
the sake of your Lord (i.e. perform your duty to All
?
)!"
[Al- Qur'an 74:1- 7]

For convenience and ease of understanding, we are going to segment the Message into its immediate constituents:

1. The ultimate objective of warning is to make sure that no one breaching the pleasures of All? in the whole universe is ignorant of the serious consequences that his behaviour entails, and to create a sort of unprecedented shock within his mind and heart.

2. ‘Magnifying the Lord’ dictates explicitly that the only pride allowed to nourish on the earth is exclusively All? ’s to the exclusion of all the others’.

3. ‘Cleansing the garments and shunning all aspects of abomination’ point directly to the indispensable need to render both the exterior and interior exceptionally chaste and pure, in addition to the prerequisite of sanctifying the soul and establishing it highly immune against the different sorts of impurities and the various kinds of pollutants. Only through this avenue can the soul of the Prophet [pbuh] reach an ideal status and become eligible to enjoy the shady mercy of All? and His protection, security, guidance and ever- shining light; and will consequently set the highest example to the human community, attract the sound hearts and inspire awe and reverence in the stray ones in such a manner that all the world, in agreement or disagreement, will head for it and take it as the rock- bed in all facets of their welfare.

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4. The Prophet [pbuh] must not regard his strife in the way of All? as a deed of grace that entitles him to a great reward. On the contrary, he has to exert himself to the utmost, dedicate his whole efforts and be ready to offer all sacrifices in a spirit of self- forgetfulness enveloped by an ever- present awareness of All? , without the least sense of pride in his deeds or sacrifices.

5. The last verse of the Qur’? revealed to the Prophet [pbuh] alludes to the hostile attitude of the obdurate disbelievers, who will jeer at him and his followers. They are expected to disparage him and step up their malice to the point of scheming against his life and lives of all the believers around him. In this case he has got to be patient and is supposed to persevere and display the highest degree of stamina for the sole purpose of attaining the pleasure of All? .

These were the basic preliminaries that the Prophet [pbuh] had to observe, very simple injunctions in appearance, greatly fascinating in their calm rhythm, but highly effective in practice. They constituted the trigger that aroused a far- ranging tempest in all the corners of the world.

The verses comprise the constituents of the new call and propagation of the new faith. A warning logically implies that there are malpractices with painful consequences to be sustained by the perpetrators, and since the present life is not necessarily the only room to bring people to account for their misdeeds or some of them, then the warning would necessarily imply calling people to account on another day, i.e. the Day of Resurrection, and this per se suggests the existence of a life other than this one we are living. All the verses of the Noble Qur’? call people to testify explicitly to the Oneness of All? , to delegate all their affairs to All? , the All-High, and to subordinate the desires of the self and the desires of All? ’s servants to the attainment of His Pleasures.

The constituents of the call to Islam could, briefly speaking, go as follows: A. Testimony to the Oneness of All? .

B. Belief in the Hereafter.

C. Sanctifying one’s soul and elevating it high above evils and abominations that conduce to terrible consequences, besides this, there is the dire need for virtues and perfect manners coupled with habituating oneself to righteous deeds.

D. Committing one’s all affairs to All? , the All- High.

E. All the foregoing should run as a natural corollary to unwavering belief in Muhammad’s Message, and abidance by his noble leadership and righteous guidance.

The verses have been prefaced, in the voice of the Most High, by a heavenly call mandating the Prophet [pbuh] to undertake this daunting responsibility (calling people unto All? ). The verses meant to extract him forcibly out of his sleep, divest him of his mantle and detach him from the warmth and quiet of life, and then drive him down a new course attended with countless hardships, and requiring a great deal of strife in the way of All? :

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"O you (Muhammad [pbuh]) enveloped (in garments)! Arise and warn."
[Al-Qur'an 74:1- 2]

Suggesting that to live to oneself is quite easy, but it has been decided that you have to shoulder this heavy burden; consequently sleep, comfort, or warm bed are items decreed to be alien in your lexicon of life. O Muhammad, arise quickly for the strife and toil awaiting you; no time is there for sleep and such amenities; grave responsibilities have been Divinely determined to fall to your lot, and drive you into the turmoil of life to develop a new sort of precarious affinity with the conscience of people and the reality of life.